Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Festival: Sky Spectacular

My husband and I attended for the first time this year. The laser show, fireworks, character balloons, morning launch were all fantastic! They have different balloon events. You can go early morning to watch the balloons take off. In the early evening, they have the character balloons, where they light them all up. A schedule of events ate posted so you can decide what best fits i to your schedule. Buses transportation is also provided at a small cost to avoid the heavy traffic. They use both school and coach busses. Handicap bus is provided and drop off closer to the event. There are so many food vendors and so much to see. We will go back for sure!

Didn’t know what to expect but was absolutely blown away by the experience. Cannot recommend enough! The entire experience was so meaningful and memorable it’s hard to put into perspective. It’s something you need to see in person to understand the magnitude of the experience. Absolutely every person we encountered was so nice and friendly. One would think with the amount of people amassed there may be some kind of tension or issues but we experienced zero situations. The balloonists were more than happy to answer questions and share their knowledge. Definitely a place to bring children. Main Street is a cool place with lots of shops and food options. The loaded potato nachos are to die for! Several beer gardens great for people watching or a nice place to relax and listen to live music and have a drink or three 😉 Dawn Patrol was cathartic! Up early but worth it. Get parking and bus tickets, such a seamless process on lockdown which is so appreciated. The Character Rodeo at sunset…WOW!!! Just WOW!!! Cannot recommend this entire experience enough!!!

The Balloon Fiesta is always great! As a local, the best way to go to the Fiesta us through the park and ride shuttle. The prices are very high for food (breakfast burritos 🌯 are around $15 each with “convenience fees” and taxes) so come prepared but when the balloons go up, it’s glorious! Coffee runs around $4. Frontier sweet rolls are $8 plus fees. Hope this helps!

The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is a must add to your bucket list. No pun intended. The atmosphere is friendly and festive. The best part was watching how thy spread out the balloons and fill them up with flames. The crowds gathered by each individual balloon and gave cheers as the pilot lifted off the ground to float away. Tips: Don’t pre-order tickets as they are nonrefundable. If the wind gets to be over 10 miles per hour the balloons can’t fly. Buy tickets at the gate upon arrival. Get there early around 5:30am to get the best parking spots. And remember where you parked or you may have a hard time locating your vehicle. Bring a coat. The morning in the high desert is pretty chilly. The souvenirs are competitively priced. You can find similar or even the same souvenirs in old town Albuquerque however, prices are slightly more expensive in old town Albuquerque.

We had family coming from out of the country and out of state during the same week that the 2023 balloon Fiesta was happening and our family wanted to go. My husband and I (he’s from NM) have never been before to the fiestas either since the idea of traffic, parking, etc was not attractive to us. Everything was going good, until they said that because there was wind (which is totally understandable) there was going to be no ascension. The weather predictions didn’t include any wind for the next day which is why we bought the tickets, but it’s Albuquerque, you truly never know. I understand they cannot control the weather and we definitely don’t want to risk anyone’s life, but the fact that there’s no planning in case that things go wrong is beyond me. It was so embarrassing for us (as we live here) that our family paid so much money because we were such a big group, and didn’t get absolutely nothing for it. It is one of the only (if not the only) big event that this state has, but cannot plan ahead on bad weather days? Our families were totally expecting plans afterwards, free food, maybe little rides, live music, partial refund, free tickets for next year. I don’t know, ANYTHING would’ve been better than "Oh sorry, either stay here paying $15 for hot cocoa, or just go home. Thank you for coming!" Our park and ride was so full of people from all over the world, Argentinians, Australians, just to mention a couple. So sad to say, but our neighboring states would have planned in advance for situations like this for sure, we look so behind in comparison. If everything goes good, then I’m sure it is awesome, but if it goes wrong, do not expect a thing from it. There’s no incentive for you to ever try going again. At least, our family and us are never trying again. We’ll spend the money on a flight and see them in Cappadocia which is a world spectacle and a World Heritage Site instead. So much potential in such a beautifully looking state, and it just gets wasted.